Mayor Donna Deegan hosted a community conversation at the Legends Center in the Sherwood neighborhood on Aug. 24, 2023. | Will Brown, Jacksonville Today
Published on August 27, 2025 at 3:07 pm
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Mayor Donna Deegan is going on the road with her sales pitch to restore several social programs the Jacksonville City Council stripped from her $2 billion budget.
Deegan announced she will host a series of six budget-focused community meetings around Duval County starting Sept. 2 at the Mandarin Senior Center.
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The town halls are free and open to the public and will not require advanced registration, according to a new release Tuesday. The events will be similar to the town hall listening tour she held in January before releasing the budget.
Deegan first said she’d host the town halls during a news conference Monday after City Council President Kevin Carrico held his own news conference. Carrico touted the Finance Committee’s moves to cut property taxes and cut several Deegan priorities to pay for what will be about a $13 million loss in revenue.
Deegan’s community meetings are all scheduled at 6 p.m. Here is when and where they will take place:
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- Sept. 2: Mandarin Senior Center, 3848 Hartley Road.
- Sept. 4: First Coast High School, 590 Duval Station Road.
- Sept. 11: Ed White High School, 1700 Old Middleburg Road.
- Sept. 15: Fletcher High School, 700 Seagate Ave., Neptune Beach.
- Sept. 17: Riverside High School, 1200 McDuff Ave. S.
- Sept. 18: Fort Caroline Middle School, 3787 University Club Blvd.
The Finance Committee’s budget hearings this month led to fights over Deegan’s proposals for telehealth for the uninsured, JaxCareConnect-partnered safety net clinics, city assistance for the Meals on Wheels senior nutrition programs, salaries for the mayor’s staff and more.
Some of that funding was restored, but Deegan said Monday that she was particularly concerned about stripping money for affordable housing projects.
The Finance Committee removed $750,000 for an attainable housing utility program; $2 million for down payment assistance; $2 million for developer incentives, or capital stack funding, for affordable housing developers; and $500,00 for an emergency rental and eviction diversion program.
